Emmy Ball-Hennings (1885–1948)

Emmy Ball-Hennings was born Emma Maria Cordsen in Flensburg, Germany. After a brief first marriage ended in 1906, she became an itinerant cabaret performer, working across Europe, and also published her avant-garde poetry. In 1913, she was singing and reciting her poems at a café in Munich when she met Hugo Ball, whom she would later marry.

That same year, she published a collection of poems called Äthergedichte (Ether Poems). In 1915, she and Ball moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where they were part of a circle of young artists and war resisters that included Jean Arp and Tristan Tzara. The couple opened the Cabaret Voltaire, which marked the beginning of the Dada movement. Later, they toured and performed with Arabella, their own ensemble troupe. Between 1935 and 1948, she wrote three autobiographical texts: Blume unci Flamme (Flower and Flame), Das flüchtige Spiel: Wege und Umwege einer Frau (The Fleeting Game: A Woman’s Ways and Deviations), and Ruf und Echo (Outcry and Echo). During the latter years of her life, she tirelessly promoted Ball's work, taking little credit for her own role as a muse and creative force in Dada.